Bring Her Back (Australia, 2025)
Bring Her Back was the first film to go on my list this year. The Philippou brothers’ Talk to Me was my pick of the year in 2023 and I had high hopes for whatever they worked on next. One of the things that impressed me most about Talk to Me was how much it took what could have been a teen horror flick and steadily ramped up the darkness until it became something unexpectedly nightmarish.
Given the reputation Bring Her Back has acquired for traumatising viewers, it was never going to surprise me in the same way. Even so, I’ve been looking forward to it enough that I saved it for the end of the month. Sometimes I just need a little treat to look forward to when slogging my way through weaker films.
Bring Her Back is available to rent in the UK.

Synopsis
When their father dies suddenly, Piper and her stepbrother Andy are placed into foster care. Piper is partially sighted, and Andy, who is a few years older, is very protective of her. He plans to become Piper’s legal guardian once he turns eighteen.
They are placed in the care of Laura, a former social worker. She is grieving the death of her daughter, Cathy, who drowned in their swimming pool. Andy is creeped out by Oliver, the other boy Laura is fostering, who is non-verbal and very intense. This leads to conflict between Laura and Andy, which Laura uses to drive a wedge between Piper and her brother.
As Laura’s manipulations grow more sinister, Oliver’s behaviour becomes stranger and more alarming. All of this is building towards something terrible, something related to the creepy cult videos that Laura keeps watching.
But why is Laura trying to drive Andy away? What plans does she have for Piper? And just what is Oliver doing with that knife?

General Thoughts
Bring Me Back is another film where people may want to check content warnings. It crosses a lot of lines.
Laura is one of the scariest monsters I’ve seen in a horror film. She is a perfectly ordinary woman living in the suburbs, dealing with crushing grief and guilt, and she will do anything to put things right. What makes her so frightening is her skills as a social worker, allowing her to identify and use everyone’s psychological pressure points. She plies the kids with alcohol, plays on Andy’s trauma over his father, and uses Piper’s poor eyesight to misdirect her. Perhaps the worst thing, however, is that her motivation is weirdly sympathetic even as she does the most terrible things to vulnerable people in her care.
The way Laura relates to death is also chilling. In a film with some shockingly violent scenes, one of the most uncomfortable moments comes when she takes Andy and Piper to their father’s funeral. Andy is clearly uncomfortable with seeing his father’s body lying in its casket, but Laura coerces him into kissing his father goodbye. This only becomes more awful once learn just why Andy found the funeral so difficult, and how Laura was playing on his trauma. There are layers upon layers to this horror.
The way Bring Her Back handles exposition is masterful. There are some key points the audience needs to understand about Laura’s scheme, and it would not only be clumsy but also completely bizarre for her to voice them. Instead, we see her watching old videotapes of a cult performing a ritual, subtitled in English, which lay out what she needs to do without being blatant. I only wish more films were as clever.

Verdict
Bring Her Back is everything I hoped it might be. I love horror films that set out to hurt the audience, and this one does not hold back. While I’m not sure I could call it the darkest film in a month that includes The Devil’s Bath, it is a close second. This is a brutal, harrowing story, and it is as visceral as it is upsetting. There are a couple of scenes involving teeth, in particular, that had me recoiling from the screen.
Subject matter aside, it is a fantastic piece of storytelling, intelligent but unambiguous, and shot through with dread. In an age where so many big horror films play things safe, it is refreshing to see something so unapologetically nasty. This isn’t a film that goes for subtle scares.
The makeup effects are phenomenal. Oliver is a creepy character, and the child actor portraying him is perfect, but his physical transformation over the course of the film turns him into something truly nightmarish. I am certain he will become an icon of horror cinema.
So, unsurprisingly, Bring Her Back is my pick of the month and the perfect way to wrap up my 2025 challenge. If you want a horror film that will actually horrify you this Halloween, you couldn’t ask for better.
The October Horror Movie Challenge
Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or lurking in the dark corners of your home.
If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:
- Heretic (USA, 2024)
- The Sadness (Taiwan, 2021)
- The Uninvited (USA, 1944)
- The Lodge (UK/USA, 2019)
- WolfCop (Canada, 2014)
- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia, 1970)
- The Monkey (USA, 2025)
- Sister Midnight (India/UK, 2024)
- Roadgames (Australia, 1981)
- Nightmare City (Italy, 1985)
- Dangerous Animals (Australia, 2025)
- Dead Talents Society (Taiwan, 2024)
- Winterbeast (USA, 1992)
- Byzantium (UK/Ireland, 2013)
- The Ugly Stepsister (Norway, 2025)
- A Page of Madness (Japan, 1926)
- Heart Eyes (USA, 2025)
- Grafted (New Zealand, 2024)
- Arrebato (Spain, 1979)
- Hatching (Finland, 2022)
- Abigail (USA, 2024)
- Ganja & Hess (USA, 1973)
- The Devil’s Bath (Austria, 2025)
- Pieces (Spain, 1982)
- Infested (France, 2023)
- Best Wishes to All (Japan, 2022)
- A Cat in the Brain (Italy, 1990)
- Enys Men (UK, 2022)
- Creature From the Black Lagoon (USA, 1954)
- Perewangan (Indonesia, 2024)
- Bring Her Back (Australia, 2025)
A Final Note
If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.
- 28 Days Later
- Something Wicked This Way Comes
- Quatermass and the Pit
- Carnival of Souls
- Late Night With the Devil
- Psycho
- Glorious
- Nightmare Alley
- Barbarian
- Kill, Baby… Kill!
- Censor
- The Night House
- Gozu
- The Changeling
- The Endless
- Cadaver
- Our favourite Cthulhu Mythos media
- The Fly
- Midsommar
- A Dark Song
- Martyrs
- The Thing
- The Ritual
- The Wicker Man
- The Stone Tape
- Hellraiser
- Event Horizon
- Pontypool
- The Witch
- INLAND EMPIRE
- Nightbreed and Lord of Illusions
- Maléfique and The Ninth Gate
- Re-Animator and From Beyond
- Repulsion and The Babdook
- Man Bites Dog, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and S&man
- A selection of weird films
- David Cronenberg
- The films that scared us most
And if you dig through the archives, you will also find episodes about a wide variety of horror stories and games. Happy nightmares!





































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